ABSTRACT
The ambition of this book was to present a post-structuralist theory of identity and foreign policy, to develop an explicit discourse analytical methodology to go with it, and to bring both together in a detailed analysis of the Western debate on Bosnia. The previous nine chapters engaged the concept of identity, the theoretical and empirical intertextuality of official foreign policy, the mobilization of authority, knowledge, and responsibility in policy discourse, the importance of Romanticism and early twentieth century civilizational reasoning for contemporary debate, the usage of non-academic and literary genres in policymaking, and the ability of official discourse to withstand atrocities, ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and domestic criticism. This concluding chapter revisits the most important theoretical and methodological themes and links them to the analysis of chapters 6 to 9. The goal, however, is not only to summarize the points made, but to present a series of suggestions for a future post-structuralist research agenda. The loudest calls of the first chapter were for a more explicit intra-post-structuralist debate and for a heightened concern with methodological choices and their consequences. In response, this chapter ends by discussing the differences between the analyses of the Western debate on Bosnia argued by David Campbell in National Deconstruction and by chapters 6 to 9.
